Looking at the High School as a System - This is a chart to help you examine
the statement “there is only one real customer—the individual who chooses to
pursue an education” (More).
Using the explanations below the chart for the callouts (such as ), how is the system working for those pursuing an
education and all the other customers?
|
Customers (Users, Clients,
Stakeholders) and Issues |
Storefront Retail |
… |
High School Education |
Details in the News about High
School Education (Click
here to go the sources of these
quotations.) |
|
1.
Customer as user? |
Shopper |
|
Student |
|
|
a.
Commitment by the user? |
a. Almost
always |
|
a. Varies |
“majority
of Texas districts have policies mandating minimum grades — typically a 50”
(ended by TEA) |
b.
Preparation of the user? |
b. Almost
always |
|
b. Varies |
||
c. User
as part of product? |
c. If
focus groups |
|
c. Almost
always |
||
|
2.
Customer as who pays? |
Shopper |
|
Student,
parents |
70% of
parents -“things ‘are fine as they are now.’” |
|
3.
Customer who may help to pay the bill? |
Varies |
|
Almost
always taxpayers |
|
|
4.
Customer as creator of the product/service |
Business
owner; vendors |
|
Mixed—teachers,
testing, vendors, districts, SBOE |
“Driving
a No. 2 pencil into the heart of testing monster” |
‚ |
5.
Customer as the field of knowledge behind the product/service? |
Never |
|
Mixed—teachers,
testing, vendors, districts, SBOE |
“SBOE
determines what millions of students learn in public schools” |
|
6.
Customer as the regulator (such as a certifier, accreditor, or standards
organization)? |
Regulators
- BBB |
|
Mixed—testing,
vendors, districts, SBOE, NCLB |
“Education
Inc. How private companies are profiting from Texas public schools” |
|
7.
Customer as the region? |
|
|
|
|
‚ |
a. Need
for qualified workers? |
a. Never |
|
a. Often to Always |
- “Rate
of Hispanic dropouts cause for waves of worry” -
“Business group joins suit over school funding” - “…they
can’t even fill out an application. They can’t spell. They can’t read and
write. But yet they got this diploma.” |
b. Need
for good jobs? |
b. Never |
|
b. Often to Always |
||
c. Need
for safe communities? |
c .Never |
|
c. Often to Always |
||
d. Need
for a solid tax base? |
d. Never |
|
d. Always |
||
‚ |
8. Customer
as the nation’s economic competitiveness? |
Occasionally
(Walmart effect) |
|
All customers above |
-
“Science a sore subject in U.S.” -
“Business group wants better math curriculum” |
‚ |
9.
Customer as the nation’s decision-making in a republic? |
Never |
|
All customers above |
Justice
O’Connor – “no testing”/”no funding” - NCLB’s “unintended effect” – “squeezed
out civics education” |
|
10.The
product/service is |
|
|
|
|
|
a. For
short-term use? |
a. Almost
always |
|
a.
Occasionally |
Same as 7 |
|
b. For
long-term use? |
b. Rarely |
|
b. Almost
always |
|
|
c.
On-going but changing? |
c. Almost
always |
|
c. Almost
always |
|
ƒ |
11.
Measurement of the user as part of the product and of the product/service is? |
Transparent,
and the shoppers got what they wanted |
|
Transparent
as test numbers; in transition |
- “Study:
School spending tough to track” - “Clear
Lake High begins crackdown on cheaters” |
„ |
12.
Rewards of success go to? |
Business
owner |
|
All customers above |
“Grier
says cheating inquiry on his agenda…HISD links bonuses to higher scores” |
13. Risks
from failure go to? |
Depends
on contract, liability |
|
All customers above - 1st risks to business and
higher education |
- “A
Stronger nation through Higher Education”
but -“The
value of blue collar work” (without college) |
Explanations for the callouts:
|
What does the news show
about what has happened to decrease the commitment by the user? |
‚ |
What does the news show
about whether we are being successful in meeting the needs of the diverse
customers of high school education? What has happened to
things that we needed to “retain”—something
that that Dietrich Dӧrner stresses is often overlooked when people are
trying to solve problems? |
ƒ |
What does the news show
about success in measurement? |
„ |
How do we protect ALL
customers? How do you keep rewards and risks together? When one customer gets
the reward and transfers the risk to the other customers, systems break. What
happening with |
Cautions:
Systems get
what they measure. Systems get what they reward even when they don’t want it.
Definitions
Term |
Use of the Term in The Logic of Failure |
Intransparency |
Planners and decision makers … must make decisions
affecting a system whose momentary features they can see only partially,
unclearly, in blurred and shadowy outline¾or possibly not at all. (p. 40) |
Retain |
How can we avoid this pitfall? Simply by keeping in mind, whenever we undertake the solution of a problem, the features of the current situation that we want to retain. Simple? Apparently not. As Brecht observed late in life, advocates of progress often have too low an opinion of what already
exists. When we set out to change things, in other words, we do not pay
enough attention to what we want to leave unchanged. But an analysis of what should be retained: §
gives us our only opportunity to make implicit goals explicit §
and to prevent
the solution of each problem from generating new problems like heads of
the Hydra. |
For
information or problems with this link, please email using the email address
below.
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
Last Updated: |
2012 – 06/04 |
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